I Blog Poetry and Prose

Today is a link in the chain
uniting yesterday and tomorrow,
and a moment in history
ascending into the space-time continuum.

The things on my cluttered desk, which was cleaned off once this year. I have to clean it off again because it attracts clutter once I clean it off. I am not going to list the normal things that are common to desks in this day and age (sorry or not about the cliché). Fortunately, I only have to list ten of the things on my desk, because there isn't enough room to list everything.

My taste in music has expanded and my favorites have changed since I turned 60. I still enjoy the music I of my childhood and teenage years; however, today I prefer music that is much more spiritual and relaxing. If I hadn't been limited to five songs, I would have chosen, at least, nine. After meditating on my choices, I whited the list down to five.

It's Monday, October 15, the third Motivational Monday in October 2018. I've had a cinnamon roll and my first cup of coffee, which should be enough motivation to finish this list. I posted my goals list to "Weekly Goals"  and have a copy of it in "Weekly Goals for 2024" . That particular document has other things that I need to do, as well. The only things in "Weekly Goals for 2024"  that I seem to be able to do in a consistent basis is the weekly goals list, and cleaning out my writing.com inbox. The other thing I accomplish, on a semi-consistent basis, is write poems on "Themes For Poems and Blog entries" . The items on the list below, will end up in a poem, short story, or essay; unless I get distracted (a problem lately) and ignore them entirely.

It's a beautiful autumn morning here in Las Vegas. The temperature is a cool 60 degrees, with higher temperatures expected when the sun ascends over Sunrise Mountain. Temperatures are expected to get up to about 71 degrees, which means we will have a pleasant Sunday. I'm the only one in my apartment or neighborhood who is up this morning. If anyone else is awake neither they nor their pets making any noise. It is mornings like this that make me smile, because they are calm and tranquil.

This week, I read all six article in the series Turning to Your Dreams for Spiritual Guidance   by David Langness. This weekend I plan to read the two articles in the series Pondering the Deep Wisdom of Dreams   by Paul Mantle, and, next week, read the six articles in the series Follow Your Dreams & Meet Your Soul   by David Langness. Any thoughts those articles, or the sacred quotes in those articles, inspire I will place in the entries in "Writing in Snow" , along with my gratitude lists.

I have found a prescription for living,
in this would of separation and affliction,
and that prescription
is reliance
on God.

I already celebrate or commemorate several worldwide Holy Days with the Baha'i Community. I thought about the international days I would name myself, and only three came to mind. Those would be World Citizen Day, Golden Rule Day, and Try A Little Kindness Day; however, two of those are already taken. World Citizen Day   is celebrated on November 4 and International Golden Rule Day   is April 5. This leaves me with Try A Little Kindness Day, which, I think, should be celebrate on August 8 the day Glen Campbell   died.

National Savings Day a day of recognition of "those who value the act of saving and to provide simple steps to show getting started isn’t as difficult as it may seem."15 I'm fairly sure, this day is for people who aren't living from paycheck to paycheck, or choosing between purchasing medication and eating or paying the rent. On the website, I noticed that Capital One, a credit card company, instigated this day. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, considering that the interest rate on credit cards prevent people from saving for anything that doesn't pay off the credit card.

The dark side, the animal side, of human nature can harm us if we let it. It is the Evil Whisperer whispering in the minds and hearts of humanity, turning us against each other and against God. It whispers negativity, xenophobia, doubt, and all the other negative emotions that could the mirror of the human soul. The Evil Whisperer has had many names down through the centuries from the voice of Satan to the insistent self. It is the voice of our lower nature, and it apposes the voice of our souls--if we let it.

I don't celebrate or commemorate Halloween any more. I will participate in Halloween parities or events, which I see as social events that don't celebrate this holiday. Sometimes I write a Halloween poem or memory, but I don't make a habit of it. The most I will do on Halloween is say prayers for the departed. I have six prayer in my Baha'i Prayer book for the departed and nine in the smartphone app, so I have several prayers to choose from.

The goal of the International Day of the Girl Child is to focus attention on and find "solutions to the unique challenges that girls around the world face every day."17 Two of the main problems facing girls across the planet are gender equality and education. Lack of gender equality impacts every woman and girl, in every strata of society, across the Earth. Lack of gender equality forces women and girls to remain second class citizens with very few if any rights. Without education there can be no gender equality because women remain unempowered and ignorant of their true station and abilities.

The important events, both joyful and traumatic, have ended up in my poems. I write the lines and stanzas, sometimes I edit them and sometimes I leave the poem as is. Some of the poems came easily, while other poems were written in scarlet ink on the tablet of my spirit before I transcribed them in black letters on a white page.

What makes me anxious? Nothing much anymore. I become less and less anxious about everything as I grow wiser and place every situation in God's hands. There are still certain things that cause me some anxiety, such as filling out forms. I don't like to fill out forms because some of the questions aren't clear or rather as clear as I'd like them to be. In addition, I'm a baby boomer and, I don't necessarily trust the government. This comes from things, I know, the government did when I was a child. One of the things I know that was encouraged and they did, was to sterilize people born with mental disabilities; this happened to a neighbor girl in Blackwell, Oklahoma.

Hunger eats at the roots of modern civilization. Hunger gnaws at the spirit of hope that shines from the soul of every human being. Some of the causes of hunger are war, drought, water shortages, destruction of farmland, global warming, etc. Cooperation between nations is the only way to alleviate hunger worldwide. One nation cannot do it on its own. One nation cannot alleviate the hunger within its own borders, because the cause of hunger is global, and global problems cannot be eliminated by a single nation. To eliminate a global problem take unified action from every nation and kingdom on the planet.

Sunday was a joyous, inspiring, and motivating day, because I attended the Unite Convention at the Baha'i Center in Las Vegas. At the Unit Convention, Baha'i elect delegates to go to the National Baha'i Center in Wilmette, Illinois, to elect the National Spiritual Assembly. Once every five years, every National Assembly across the planet goes to the Baha'i International Center on Mount Camel, in Israel, to elect the Universal House of Justice. The thrilling and inspiring thing about Baha'i elections is that there is no campaigning. Each individual in the community gets to know the others during the year, and cast their votes after prayer and meditation.

I started the day off properly, with the exception of leaving the light on in the bathroom. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but, right now, there are three people in this apartment. A light on in the bathroom meas it is in use. To get back to the subject of kicking butt, as I said, I started the morning off right. I took my thyroid tablet, I chanted the Greatest Name, and I put the coffee on to brew. After the coffee brewed, I poured myself a cup, put an International Delight Reese's Peanut Buttercup creamer in it, and got myself three chocolate covered tiny doughnuts for my first breakfast.

One of my favorite childhood memories is watching Grandpa Frank make coffee. When the electric percolator came on the market, Grandpa purchased one. He made his coffee in that percolator every morning, he would put the coffee in a thermos bottle, place the thermos in his lunch box, and take it to work. On the weekends, or holidays, when he didn't have to go to work, he would make numerous pots of coffee everyday. On those days he would put the coffee on, drink a cup with his breakfast, and go out to do his chores. He would leave the coffee to perk in the percolator, until he came back in and he would have another cup of coffee. Coffee perking in a percolator gets stronger the more it perks. Grandpa called this "Cowboy Coffee",

Over the past several decades, I have had numerous strange encounters, encounters with strangers, and strange encounters with strangers. I remember once, several years ago, around Halloween. I was going home, and since I didn't have a car, I was riding the city bus. The bus, going east on Charleston Avenue, made a stop and picked up several passengers. One of them appeared to be a bit inebriated, but not belligerent, so the bus driver let him board the bus. He took the empty seat beside me, and, after the bus begin moving, he started to sing Christmas songs. He was obviously a happy drunk, which isn't a reason to get kicked off the bus. The rest of the passengers, along with me, just smile at man's choice of songs given the time of years.